Undoubtedly
you’ve noticed the scaffolding over the main door to
the parish house. The scaffolding is there because
the mortar on the small bell tower over the door (called
a bellcote) is so deteriorated that stones are in danger
of falling. Another serious safety hazard exists on
the roof over the rose window in the auditorium. The
stones that form the top of the roof line (called the parapet)
have slipped so far that some are in danger of falling into
the rectory yard. If the rectory yard were accessible
to the public, you would also see protective scaffolding
against the north side of the parish house. Architects
and engineers from the firm Licthen Craig have identified
these and other masonry issues on the parish house as needing
immediate attention if the building is to be safe and not
fall into disrepair.

Barry Donaldson from Lichten Craig made detailed drawings
and specifications of the pressing work that needs to be
done on the parish house and helped us interview three construction
firms specializing in historic buildings. With
Barry’s advice, we selected a firm call Seaboard and work will begin on
Monday, October 10 with the goal of being completed by the end of January 2012.

The vestry has allocated $200,000 from our investments
to do this work: $165,000 for the Seaboard contract and the
rest, all of which may not be needed, for other related expenses
such as the scaffolding rental. The
vestry and I were very reluctant to draw money out of our investments but given
the serious safety concerns we felt we had no choice. The vestry is aware,
too, that there are other serious capital needs which are not part of this project,
such as re-pointing the central tower and church and landscaping the grounds
to prevent water from flooding basements in the church, parish house, and rectory
which is damaging their foundations.

While considering these building issues, the vestry
has also been discussing undertaking a capital campaign. In December we
interviewed two capital fund raising companies recommended to us by the diocese. We
spent time at several meetings discussing the merits of each company and also
the feasibility of a capital campaign. Vestry member Rich Whaley diligently
checked references and talked to churches that had used each firm. Vestry member
David Nygard did a comparison of the cost of each firm’s proposal. During
the summer the wardens, Rich, and I met with the Finance Committee to share what
we had learned about each company and capital campaigns in general. At
its September meeting, the vestry voted to move forward with a capital campaign
and to engage the services of Ruotolo Associates of Cresskill, New Jersey

Given
the state of the economy, this may seem like a poor time
to undertake a capital campaign, which makes the first stage
of this process very important. The first stage of
the process, under the guidance of Ruotolo Associates, is
a parish assessment which will study the feasibility of a
capital campaign and estimate how much money we realistically
can raise. If a campaign does not seem feasible we
can abandon it at this point, if it does we can move forward. Whether
we move forward to a capital campaign or not, a parish assessment
will be valuable in itself and will help us continue to discern
the mission of our parish and identify new leaders. Soon
you may be contacted about participating in an interview,
a focus group, or asked to complete a survey. I hope
everyone will participate fully as we initiate this exciting
process.

Fr. Chuck

Girl
Scouts Meet at Christ Church Lisa Rhoades

Drop by Christ Church on
any Thursday afternoon and you'll find the place bustling
with activity--the Christ Church Community Youth Choir
will be practicing in the Guild Room and church, you may
find the Knitting group in the Vestry Room, and starting
today Brownie Troop 5189 will join the Christ Church community
by holding their bi-monthly meetings in the auditorium
from 3:15 to 4:45 pm.

This is not the troop's first experience at Christ
Church. For the past 3 years, they have helped assemble
the Thanksgiving Holiday baskets distributed by Christ
Church Community Outreach. In 2010 Christ Church was the
location for the Staten Island Girl Scout's "World Thinking Day" activities--a
day that Girl Scouts and Girl Guides do activities and projects to celebrate
world friendship and honor their sisters in other countries.

Christ Church has been a long-time
supporter of Scouting on Staten Island. From hosting a Boy
Scout Troop in the 1990s to judiciously managing to purchase
Girl Scout Cookies each December from several Daisies, Brownies
and Juniors, Christ Church parishioners have opened their
hearts and offered their treasure and talent to Scouts in
the community. Watch for notices and pictures of their activities
on the bulletin board in the Parish Hall, and Welcome Girl
Scouts to Christ Church!

Save
the Date

The ten Episcopal Churches
of Staten Island will join together for a service
of Evensong on December 4 at 4:00 p.m. at Christ Church as
part of the celebration of Staten Island’s
350th Anniversary.

The service will be conducted according
to the 1559 Book of Common Prayer, the book in use 350 years
ago, and will feature period appropriate music sung by a
combined choir. A reception in the auditorium will
follow with displays from each parish.

Meet
the Nominees

The Diocese of New York
has released the names of five nominees for Bishop Coajutor,
a bishop who will succeed Bishop Sisk as the Bishop of
New York when he retires. In the Episcopal Church, bishops
are elected by the diocese in a special convention and
then the election is ratified by the other dioceses and
diocesan bishops in the Episcopal Church. Christ Church’s
delegates to the special convention are Fr. Chuck and Mark
Gherzo, Sr. Warden.

The
nominees are: The Very Rev. Peter Eaton; The Rev. Cathy
Hagstrom George; The Rev. Canon John T. W. Harmon; The
Very Rev. Tracey Lind; The Rt. Rev. Peter Whalon. Since
these nominees were announced two priests from within
the Diocese: The Rev. Canon Andrew M. L. Dietsche and
The Rev. Canon Petero A. N. Sabune, have been added
to the list of nominees for Bishop Coadjutor through
a petition process.

For more information about the candidates including the
dates of the “walkabouts” at which you can
meet the candidates, go to www.nybishopsearch2011.org.
Although you are free to go to any of the “walkabouts,” the
one for Staten Island will be Thursday, October 13 at
noon at St. Mary’s, Castleton.

Youth
Group Calendar Fr. Chuck

Date

Time

Event

Friday, 10/14

6:30 p.m.

Roller Skating (meet at church)

Friday, 10/28

Fright Night at St. Andrew’s

Friday, 11/11

7 p.m.

Game Night & Mayhem Milkshakes

Friday 11/25

No Youth Group(Friday
after Thanksgiving)

Friday, 12/9

7 p.m.

Ice Skating

Adult
Education

This fall Deacon Geri and
Father Chuck are offering a class entitled Women
in Ministry. The class will be held at 11:30
a.m. in the rectory. You can get to the rectory either
by the front door or by the outdoor cloister and in through
the rectory’s side door. Class will end at
12:15 p.m. so that parents can pick up their children in Godly
Play.

Women in Ministry will explore the
roles women have had in the faith community from Old Testament
times, to the early and patristic church, during the Middle
Ages and reformation, in the nineteenth century, and to
the present day. We will pay particular attention to the
deaconess movement, an area of study for Deacon Geri, and the movement toward
the ordination of women in the Episcopal Church.

SCHEDULE
OF CLASSES

Date

Class

10/9

New Testament and Early
Church

10/16

Patristic and Medieval Church
and the Reformation

10/23

19th Century

10/30

Deaconesses

11/6

No Class— All Saints’ Sunday

11/13

The Episcopal Church

11/20

Current Status

Sandro
Russo to Perform at Christ Church
Sunday, October 30 Valerie Quinlan

Widely acclaimed pianist,
Sandro Russo, will be featured in Serenade’s October
30 performance at Christ Church at 3 p.m. The
concert will feature works of Beethoven, Chopin and Liszt
and is free to the public. A Meet-the-Artists reception
will be held in the Parish House, immediately following
the performance.

Noted for his profound sense of poetry and distinctive
style, Mr. Russo has performed for audiences around the
world and has unanimously received accolades for his sparkling
virtuosity.

Born
in San Giovanni Gemini – Sicily, Mr. Russo displayed exceptional musical
talent from an early age. In 1995, he graduated summa cum laude from the V.
Bellini Conservatory and earned the Pianoforte Performing Diploma from the Royal
College of Music in London ‘with honors’. While still a student,
he won top prize awards in numerous national and international competitions,
including Senigallia, and the Ibla Grand Prize. As a result, he was invited
to perform in some of the country’s most prestigious concert halls.

Mr. Russo has given solo recitals for The Rachmaninoff
Society in London, Memphis, and New York, as well as the
American Liszt Society – New York Chapter. He has also performed
at the Salle Cortot in Paris and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.
More recently, he has been heard in concert at Carnegie
Hall, the Moiseiwitsch Recital Series at the Music Festival
of the Hamptons, the Dame Myra Hess series in Chicago, the
Italian Institute of Culture in NYC, Concerts Grand in Santa
Rosa (CA) and the Chetham’s International Piano Festival
in Manchester, U.K, where he also joined its distinguished
summer school’s faculty. This past November the Italian
Academy Foundation presented Mr. Russo in a sold-out Chopin & Schumann
anniversary concert at Carnegie Hall, which drew a standing
ovation from the audience.

Sandro Russo’s performances have aired on WFMT Chicago,
WQXR New York, RAI Sat Show and the Slovakian TV. In January
2009 Bechstein-America invited Mr. Russo to record a DVD
on the historical 1862 Bechstein piano (#576) owned by Franz
Liszt. In addition, in February 2010 he recorded a DVD on
the Steinway & Sons CD-75, i.e. the legendary piano
on which Vladimir Horowitz performed for his concerts at
the Met and London’s Royal Family in the 80s.

The Serenade Concert Series
is made possible in part by Northfield Bank Foundation,
Richmond County Savings Foundation, Con Edison, The Lois
and Richard Nitotra Foundation, and by public funding from
the City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with
the City Council, Council Member Debi Rose.

All
Saints' Sunday

Sunday, November 6 is All Saints’ Sunday. If
you have a departed loved one that you would like remembered
in prayer on that day, please contact
or call
718-727-6100. All Saints’ Sunday is also the
next occasion for Holy Baptism. If a member of your
family would like to be baptized, please speak to Fr. Chuck.

Vestry
Notes Nick Dowen

The regularly scheduled meeting of the Vestry of Christ Church
New Brighton took place on Monday, September 12, 2011. Following are highlights
of important issues that were discussed that evening:

Committee ReportsPlant & Equipment

Water coming into the rectory and church tower: Roof
gutters on the rectory and those around the walls of the
believes that the problem is that the tower church will
be cleaned in hopes of alleviating this problem. Although
Plant & Equipment, which needs to be repointed, is
soaking up and then releasing water it might be worth
sending someone into the tower to look for standing water.

Fascia board loose on rectory: It
appears that cable or phone lines from the street have
pulled the bottom of a fascia board loose and water is
coming into the rectory from that area. Verizon and Time
Warner Cable will be contacted to assess possible repairs.

Parish Hall basement repairs: The
committee is soliciting quotes on repairing the various
damages to the Parish Hall basement

Priorities for the next few months:
the following projects, all costing about $10,000, were
presented to the Vestry for consideration:

Chair lift, Parish Hall Auditorium: $13,800

Sound system, church: $7,000

Bathroom, Rectory: $11,800

Parish Hall basement repairs: unknown

Air conditioning, Parish Hall Auditorium: $10,000

Warming pantry and unisex bathroom, Parish Hall Auditorium:
$15,000?

Father Howell noted that the Church of the Mediator,
Allentown, PA, whose youth group visited our church this
year, has sent a $100 gift which they suggested applying
to the Parish Hall basement, where they stayed overnight.
Our own youth group is interested in doing service and
the basement has been suggested as a focus for their projects.

Education

There is a new Godly Play room. The Rector noted that
33 children have registered for Godly Play, with more
to come, and three youths have registered for Journey
to Adulthood, also with more to come.

Fund-Raising

The September Blueberry Festival cleared about $2,000.
There are four large fund-raising events in the year:
the Blueberry Festival, St. Nick’s Fair (Dec. 3),
Holly Ball (Dec. 10), Spring Fair.

Christ Church Community
Outreach (CCCO)

Holiday Baskets for Thanksgiving and Christmas will
again be assembled and distributed this year.

Christ Church Community
Youth Choir (CCCYC)

Registration and first rehearsal will take place on
September 15. CCCYC recently participated in Staten Island’s
9/11 observance at the "Postcards" memorial.

After School Programs at Christ Church

We will be offering a reading program and instruction
in African drumming and steel drumming. Deacon Geri Swanson
is looking for struggling readers and has compiled a varied
book list that will appeal to youths.

Capital Campaign

The Vestry voted to engage Ruotolo Associates to begin
undertaking a capital campaign. The program will begin
with a self-assessment.

Deacon’s Report

Deacon Geri Swanson reported that Staten Island’s
food pantries have experienced very heavy demand and are
depleted. The Episcopal churches of Staten Island will
be conducting a food drive on the first two Sundays of
October. Christ Church parishioners are being asked to
bring packages of spaghetti (8 or 9 – not other
forms of pasta) and jars of spaghetti sauce.

Rector’s Report

Thank-you notes from scholarship recipients have been
received, including Hugo McIntosh Jr. and Dylan Luke.
Hugo was also honored by the local chapter of the NAACP.

The Rector thanked parishioners for helping out and cleaning
up after Hurricane Irene, in particular Nick Lettiere and
Mark Gherzo for pumping the water out of the Choir Room
with a sump pump.

Fundraising
Comittee to Meet on October 26 Alleida Mitchell

The Fundraising
Committee will be meeting on Wednesday,
October 26 at 7:30 p.m. to start the process
of scheduling events for next year.

A list of recommended
activities will be presented to Vestry for approval at
its meeting December 12th meeting. Parishioners and friends
wishing to organize events should submit their proposal(s)
to the FRC for scheduling.

The suggested format for submission
is as follows: Type of event; Preferred date and time; purpose;
anticipated income.

Food
Pantry Needs Your Help! Deacon Geri Swanson

Over the past year we have
seen a decided rise in the need for food support on Staten
Island. The Soup Kitchen and Pantry at Trinity Lutheran
Church where I serve as Coordinator of Volunteers has seen
a 250% rise in the numbers of guests over the past years. In
2006 we averaged 53 guests per week, this year
we are seeing an average of 134 guests per week; last week,
the first week in September we fed 148 people. The
food pantry there has seen a rise in its numbers from an
average of 84 households a month to over 226
per month in that same time period.

The pantry at Richmond Senior Services has also seen
an unusually high increase in those seeking its services,
and is no longer able to supply food for families of four.
They are rationing their distribution to families of two.
Over the last year Federal funding has declined by 30%
and with current restrictions, T-FAP food grants, which
is dependent on farm subsidies and such, is in jeopardy
of losing funding and support.

With this in mind, and the knowledge that Episcopal
Feeding Ministry, as a legal entity, is no longer in existence,
I am asking that each parish in the IPC consider a limited
item food drive to help re-stock the shelves of these two
pantries which have an connection to the Episcopal Church
on Staten Island. The pantry at Richmond Senior Services is overseen
by Deacon Neuhaus as part of her secular employment. Several Episcopal
parishes have prepared meals for the Soup Kitchen at Trinity Lutheran: Christ
Church, St Andrew's and on occasion, Ascension.

The list below includes some very basic items that
would help restock the shelves and are basic staples for
either pantry. I
am asking parishes to donate only one or two of these items, perhaps pairing
them together i.e. a box of mac and cheese mix and a can of mixed vegetables.

Because the need is so great, I am hoping to run this
IPC drive beginning Sunday, October 2nd through Sunday
October 9th. I
will be happy to pick up any donations and distribute them to the two sites
by the 13th of October.

The British Luncheon, originally
scheduled for Sunday, October 23 has been RESCHEDULED.
The new date is now
Sunday, November 13

Please be sure to mark your calendars – this is a
culinary event that you won’t want to miss!

Journey
to Adulthood Class and Activity Schedule Denise Rompilla

Date

Activity

Sunday, 10/9

Centers: School, Stuff, Friends, Parents, Etc.

Sunday, 10/16

Principle-Centered

Sunday, 10/23

Be Pro-Active: The
Personal Bank Account

Sunday, 10/30

Pro-Active or Reactive: The
Choice is Yours

Sunday, 11/6

Service Project #1: Homeless
Shelter

Sunday, 11/13

Begin with the End in Mind

Sunday, 11/20

Getting Started on Your Mission
Statement:
The Great Discovery

Sunday, 11/27

Writing Your Mission Statement

Sunday, 12/4

Put First Things First; Handout
Service Project #2
(Seaview)

Sunday, 12/11

Service Project # 2:
Ornaments for Seaview Nursing Home

Sunday, 12/18

CHRISTMAS PAGEANT

Around
the Parish Nancy Reiersen-Scromo

It’s October and Christ
Church activities are in full swing. Our September Blueberry
Festival and Sunday Italian Lunch were
quite popular and well-attended. Kudos to all of the hard-working
folks who organized these events.

Earlier this month Fr. Chuck and Deacon Geri blessed
a variety of “non-human” family members at our annual Pet Blessing
and a great time was had by all. And the following day, Sunday, October 2, we
celebrated Father Chuck’s 5th Anniversary as
the Rector of Christ Church. It was a joyful celebration,
and I’m sure you’ll
be seeing photos on our website and on the Parish House bulletin board.

Glad to report that Frank Quinlan is
home and recuperating nicely from his recent knee surgery.
And it’s surely
good to have John Watson back with us
again after his recent Transatlantic cruise to Norway.

Don’t forget to mark your calendars for the annual
Christ Church Holly Ball – a spectacular cocktail hour, dinner, dancing
and loads of holiday fun. This year’s honorees are Hal and Linda
Reiersen and Nancy Reiersen-Scromo.

Many of you may not be aware that Claire Kennedy,
daughter of Laura and Henry Kennedy, has
been serving in the Peace Corps for the past year. Claire
has been working in western Africa for the past two years and has not seen her family since she left. Her parents
are looking forward to their trip to Africa in November
and will have many wonderful stories to share upon their
return.

Condolences to Janet Schneider and
her family on the passing of her mother-in-law, Betty Schneider,
last month.

That’s all for now…bundle
up and keep warm. See you all in November!

Serving
Our Country

Alexander (“Xander”)
Raff, son of Peter Raff, is currently serving in a combat
mission in Iraq. He has been assigned to several Forward
Operating Bases (FOBs) and at least one has come under
enemy mortar fire.

In June 2010, Xander graduated from Tottenville High
School. He was captain of the Varsity wrestling team and
won the PSAL wrestling championship for his weight class.
He also won the Mayor’s Cup and was
ranked in NY State in the 215 weight class.

Please keep Xander in your prayers
as he continues to serve our country in this important assignment.